Releases

Gary Numan - I, Assassin Green Vinyl LP in stores Mar 1

15 February 2019

Originally released in 1982, I, Assassin is Gary Numan’s sixth studio album and fourth under his own
name. Restored from the original analogue tapes, presented on HD audio, this UK import reissue is
pressed on dark green vinyl.
Combining fretless bass with heavy rock drumming, Numan further refined his dark, sparse, funkyelectro
style, mixing it with impenetrable, slurred vocals.
Numan recorded and wrote most of the music between January and March 1982, following his
infamous round-the-world trip in a light aircraft and a near-death crash onto a British road while copiloting
a spiralling Cessna.
Three of the album’s songs made it into the UK top 20. According to Numan, who was still only 24-
years-old at the time, “the round-the-world flight, the plane crash, these were big things that helped me
shape a new opinion of myself. Those experiences gave me a self-confidence, a genuine strength that I
hadn’t had before.”
Twenty years later, the singer enthused, “I still think it’s one of the best albums I’ve made.” I, Assassin’s
heavily percussive approach led to several tracks becoming unexpected intruders on American
dancefloors, notably the 12” single of “Music For Chameleons” and a specially remixed U.S. version of
“White Boys And Heroes.”
Electro pioneer Afrika Bambaataa enthused about Numan’s style in this era: “Kraftwerk and Gary
Numan were special to me because they made funk music. It’s all related – Sly Stone, James Brown,
George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Kraftwerk and Gary Numan. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s Gary had the
rhythms that DJs wanted to get hold of and people waited for his records on the dance floor.”
I, Assassin stands out as a record fiercely propelled by powerful rhythms in songs laced with an earthy
cynicism.

“There are still people trying to work out what a genius Gary Numan is.” – Prince

“I was always impressed by the way Gary Numan found his own voice–and it was unusual–but it was
unmistakably him and boldly him. I see me doing what I learned from him.” – Trent Reznor, Nine Inch
Nails

“Gary Numan proves music has always been really inventive for the masses.” – Lady Gaga

After the spare and lengthy reflections and dislocated experiments of his excellent Dance album, Gary
Numan made a return to a more focused approach with I, Assassin, which turned out to be his last truly
great album for many years. Much of what would characterize his later music in the ’80s did start to show
up here, to be sure, but instead of the formless flailing all too apparent on Warriors, and especially on
Berserker, Numan’s work here with modern electronic funk combines his early rigor and to-the-point
rhythms with a deft, creative hand in the arrangements. “White Boys and Heroes,” the brilliant opening
number, remains one of his best singles, featuring fretless bass work from Pino Palladino (long before
both it and him had turned into rent-a-clichés), and set against droning, distorted vocals and doom-laden
keyboards. The vaguely Asian (or at least the group Japan)-inspired textures of Dance linger on in songs
like “A Dream of Siam” and the title track (the latter possessing a captivating hollow-drum-punch
introduction), while one of Numan’s most randomly entertaining songs pops up with “The 1930s Rust.” It’s
a suave finger-snapping number that even features harmonica, but somehow Numan’s ear for to-thepoint
rhythm and strange futurism still comes through. Perhaps the most underrated song remains the
sharp hipshaker “War Songs” — U2 may never want to admit it, but “Numb” takes more than a little from
the distorted up-and-down introductory guitar clips.

PicaPica Cast In Stone Limited Edition 12" in stores Feb. 15

15 February 2019

PicaPica first appeared on the scene with their debut EP ‘Spring & Shade’ back in 2016 and are now
returning with a new limited edition 12” featuring delicate yet empowering new track ‘Cast in Stone’. The
track is a song of two halves, it playfully marks the emotionally turbulent waxing and waning of love, of
both its bonds and disaffection.
It also features two remixes from Seb Rochford – best known for drumming with the legendary Patti
Smith – who has also performed on PicaPica’s upcoming debut album.
PicaPica features the vocal interplay of Josienne Clarke and Samantha Whates, dual front women who
create powerful harmonies atop layers of texture created by Adam Beattie & Sonny Johns, a tiding of
magpies picking shiny moments of tone and timbre from 60s west coast, sunshine pop and indie folk.
Josienne and Samantha met on the London acoustic music scene several years ago and immediately
shared a love of singing and writing. They have been unofficially collaborating for years, often singing
backing vocals for each other’s projects or just singing harmonies together for the pure enjoyment of it.
The other half of PicaPica aka Adam Beattie, Scotland’s king of soft-spoken chanson, brings gently
morphing textures and detailed guitar playing to every bar, while Sonny Johns – a Grammy, Mercury andMOBO-nominated producer/engineer. Sonny’s bass playing and production give PicaPica’s otherworldly
compositions a seriously grounded sound.

Samantha and Josienne have been bumping into each other on London’s cosy folk circuit for some time
now. Both masters of sepia-tinged storytelling and whimsical acoustics, it was only a matter of time
before they made the leap from stage-sharing to songwriting. Working together as PicaPica for the last
couple of years, their ideas have gently percolated around a love of transcendental melodies and earthy
music. Away from the limelight, they’ve filtered sixties’ West Coast pop, soaring indie and pastoral English
folk into a stark musical template that packs a hefty emotional wallop.
Coming at the same song from different angles, their voices weave in and out of each other, harmonies
and melodies curling round Adam and Sonny’s backing like a warm hug.
Now signed to Rough Trade, PicaPica are preparing to take flight in 2018, with live dates and an album
on the way – all preceded by the stellar four-track EP Spring & Shade on 8 December.
Be sure to hunt it down and keep hold of it tight – it’s a real gem.

Selections:
A. Cast In Stone
B1. Cast In Sea
B2. Overcast

BOWERY ELECTRIC - LUSHLIFE LP IN STORES FEB. 1

1 February 2019

Bowery Electric’s third release, LushLife, has not been available on vinyl since it’s release. Beautifully
mastered at Metropolis Studios by John Davis, the album is available once again from Beggars Arkive
worldwide February 1, 2019.
Originally released in early 2000 by Beggars Banquet, Lushlife peaked at No. 14 on the CMJ Top 200
chart and No. 11 on the Core Radio chart. Nearly two years in the making, Lushlife, in what would
become the band’s final album, took even greater strides forward from previous releases.
The album teems with atomized sounds, each one opening a portal in the mix, importing a haze of
space and history, evoking the distant buzz of the city beyond the studio.
Throughout, gilded strings build, sway and exhale, plugging the music into the sumptuous melancholy
of Philly soul, the emotive Mancini-inspired arrangements of Gaye and Mayfield and the edgy soundtrack
scores of David Shire. Yet with all the experiment and variation, Lushlife is actually quite a deliberate and
enticing affair for the ear and mind.
Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener met while working at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine
and formed Bowery Electric in late 1993. The band earned critical acclaim for experimentation across
genres, mixing elements of ambient, drone, electronic, experimental, IDM, minimal and rock music with
’70’s soul soundtracks, disco, drum and bass, dub and hip hop. Their self-titled debut was named by
Pitchfork as one of the best shoegaze albums of all time. Their second album Beat was praised by The
Wire as “genre-defining”. On Lushlife the touchstone is trip-hop – but set in Brooklyn and through the
Bowery Electric filter. The beats are lithe, crisp and deep and lines are perpetually blurred between
samples (of which there are more than 75) and live instruments.
Following the Lushlife tour in 2000 the band went on hiatus. Chandler studied composition privately with
La Monte Young and Pauline Oliveros and at The Juilliard School and Goldsmiths College and worked for
Philip Glass. He returned in 2009 with “Everybody Here Is Fine” commissioned for Make Music New
York. Recent works include “Music for Rock Ensemble” commissioned for 50 Years of Minimalism and
The Tuning of the World, a 24-hour sustained tone composition. His current band is London-based
alternative / electronic duo Happy Families.
Schwendener released the solo electronica album Sola in 2003 on Instinct Records and is now a highly
regarded art critic on staff at the New York Times. She is also a visiting professor at New York University
and a critic in photography at the Yale University School of Art.

“A morphine drip of an album.” – Austin Chronicle

“With impossibly crisp beats and Schwendener’s gauzy tease of a voice (think Georgia Hubley on
Prozac), the two create the impression that they can see in the dark, and use their music to assure us
that it’s not so bad in the shadows.” – CMJ

Manhattan-based drone-rock duo Bowery Electric comprised vocalist/guitarist Lawrence Chandler, a
former protégé of minimalist composer LaMonte Young, and vocalist/bassist Martha Schwendener.
Originally a three-piece rounded out by a series of drummers, Bowery Electric bowed in 1994 with a
double 7” on their self-owned Hi-Fidelity Recordings which helped land them on the indie label Kranky,
which issued their self-titled debut LP in 1995. With 1996’s Beat, the duo’s swirling, chaotic sound began
to incorporate elements of the electronica movement; a subsequent series of 12” remixes by the likes of
Disjecta, CHASM, and Immersion further solidified their new affiliation with electronic music, as did
1997’s remix collection Vertigo. The long-awaited Lushlife finally appeared in early 2000.

Selections:

Side A
Floating World
Lushlife
Shook Ones
Psalms of Survival
Soul City

Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? is the new album from Atlanta’s Deerhunter. It follow’s 2015’s Fading Frontier and is preceded by the lead single, Death in Midsummer and the accompanying loosely Western-themed video, which features Bradford Cox wandering around a ghost town. Album producer Cate Le Bon contributes the harpsichord that dominates the track.
As thrilling and unpredictable as anything in Deerhunter’s near 15-year career, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? was recorded in several strategic geographic points across North America and produced by the band, Cate LeBon, Ben H. Allen III and Ben Etter.
Forgetting the questions and making up unrelated answers, Deerhunter’s eighth LP is a science fiction album about the present. Exhausted with the toxic concept of nostalgia, they reinvent their approach to microphones, the drum kit, the harpsichord, the electro mechanical and synthetic sounds of keyboards. Whatever guitars are left are pure chrome, plugged straight into the mixing desk with no amplifier or vintage warmth.
The album will be supported by a world tour that has the band returning to Canada February 21 at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall and February 22 at Le National in Montréal.

How do you describe an album out of time, concerned with the disappearance of culture, of humanity, of nature, of logic and emotion? Why make this album in an era when attention spans have been reduced to next to nothing, and the tactile grains of making music have been further reduced to algorithms and projected playlist placement. Why wake up in the morning? Why hasn’t everything already disappeared?
Deerhunter’s eighth LP forgets the questions and makes up unrelated answers. It gets up, walks around, it records itself in several strategic geographic points across North America. It comes home, restructures itself and goes back to bed to avoid the bad news.
From the opening harpsichord and piano figures of ‘Death in Midsummer’, it is impossible to tell where the record came from. Is ‘No One’s Sleeping’ an outtake of an aborted Kinks recording session in 1977 Berlin with Eno producing? No. That is nostalgia. If there is one thing Deerhunter are making clear it is that they have exhausted themselves with that toxic concept.

Selections:
Death in Midsummer
No One’s Sleeping
Greenpoint Gothic
Element
What Happens to People
Detournement
Futurism
Tarnung
Plains
Nocturne

Zach Condon, the mastermind behind Beirut, releases his fifth studio album Gallipoli on February 1st
2019 through 4AD.
The 12-track Gallipoli started life when Zach Condon returned to his old Farinas organ, the same one
he used to write his first two albums, Gulag Oresteia (2006) and The Flying Club Cup (2007).
After stints writing and recording in both New York and Berlin, with time for Zach to recover from a
broken arm factored in, band plus producer Gabe Wax (Speedy Ortiz, Soccer Mommy, Adrianne Lenker /
Big Thief) headed to Puglia in Italy to finish the album.
With the remote rural setting “the right amount of isolated”, an intense month of 12 to 16-hour days in
the studio with day trips around the coastline followed. Inspired by the surroundings, Gallipoli is
unintentionally more visceral than Beirut’s more recent albums, alive with an energy that is further
enhanced by every creak and groan of their instruments, every detuned note, and all amp buzz and
technical malfunction being left in the cracks of the songs.
Gallipoli’s title track is a cathartic embrace of old and new. Condon says, “We stumbled into the
medieval-fortressed island town of Gallipoli one night and followed a brass band procession fronted by
priests carrying a statue of the town’s saint through the winding narrow streets behind what seemed like
the entire town. The next day I wrote the song entirely in one sitting, pausing only to eat.”
Beirut hit the road with confirmed Canadian shows February 18th Montreal (Metropolis), Toronto on the
19th (Sony Centre). and Vancouver on February 26th at The Orpheum.

“Gallipoli started, in my mind, when I finally had my old Farinas organ shipped to New York from my
parent’s home in Santa Fe, NM. I acquired the organ from my first job at the CAM; the local foreign film
theater and gallery space. Most of my first record (Gulag Oresteia, 2006) and large parts of my second
record (The Flying Club Cup, 2007) were written entirely on this organ as well, I started writing the first
songs of Gallipoli on that organ sometime in late 2016, as the winter started.
Soon songs began to take shape in quick and inspiring ways and I booked a three-week session at a
fairly new start-up studio in Chelsea Manhattan, called Relic Room in the deep winter of that year. I
brought in Gabe Wax, the producer of No, who I felt shared a similar vision sonically as I do, and who I
knew was as game as I was to push every sound to its near-breaking point. With the main instruments
recorded, with the help of my bandmaster Nick Peterec and Paul Collins on drums and bass, we
proceeded to channel every note played through a series of broken amplifiers, PA systems, space
echoes and tape machines, sometimes leaving a modular swath looping in the live room at volumes so
loud we had to wear headphones as earmuffs while running into the room to make adjustments to the
amplifiers. At some point I realized Gallipoli was done and flew Gabe Wax into Berlin for a final mixing session at
Voix Ton studios. After the Voix Ton session I mastered the record with Francesco at Calyx, not far from
my own apartment in Berlin.” – Zach Condon

“Recorded with Paul Collins on bass and Nick Peterec on percussion, the new album’s title track is a
huge, bouncing parade of organ and horn that’s both triumphant and understated.” – NOR

“Gallipoli is very much in the lineage of Zach Condon’s formative work, driven by an anthemia brass
theme and folk percussion.” – Spin

Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? is the new album from Atlanta’s Deerhunter. It follow’s
2015’s Fading Frontier and is preceded by the lead single, Death in Midsummer and the accompanying
loosely Western-themed video, which features Bradford Cox wandering around a ghost town. Album
producer Cate Le Bon contributes the harpsichord that dominates the track.
As thrilling and unpredictable as anything in Deerhunter’s near 15-year career, Why Hasn’t Everything
Already Disappeared? was recorded in several strategic geographic points across North America and
produced by the band, Cate LeBon, Ben H. Allen III and Ben Etter.
Forgetting the questions and making up unrelated answers, Deerhunter’s eighth LP is a science fiction
album about the present. Exhausted with the toxic concept of nostalgia, they reinvent their approach to
microphones, the drum kit, the harpsichord, the electro mechanical and synthetic sounds of keyboards.
Whatever guitars are left are pure chrome, plugged straight into the mixing desk with no amplifier or
vintage warmth.
The album will be supported by a world tour that has the band returning to Canada February 21 at
Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall and February 22 at Le National in Montréal.

How do you describe an album out of time, concerned with the disappearance of culture, of humanity, of
nature, of logic and emotion? Why make this album in an era when attention spans have been reduced
to next to nothing, and the tactile grains of making music have been further reduced to algorithms and
projected playlist placement. Why wake up in the morning? Why hasn’t everything already disappeared?
Deerhunter’s eighth LP forgets the questions and makes up unrelated answers. It gets up, walks around,
it records itself in several strategic geographic points across North America. It comes home, restructures
itself and goes back to bed to avoid the bad news.
From the opening harpsichord and piano figures of ‘Death in Midsummer’, it is impossible to tell where
the record came from. Is ‘No One’s Sleeping’ an outtake of an aborted Kinks recording session in 1977
Berlin with Eno producing? No. That is nostalgia. If there is one thing Deerhunter are making clear it is
that they have exhausted themselves with that toxic concept.

SIDEONE:
1. Death In Midsummer (4:22)
Caption of photograph found in book: “Revolution In The Streets of
St. Petersburg, July 1917.” The photo shows figures of people
running away from piles of bodies.
2. No One’s Sleeping (4:26)
On 16 June, 2016 Labor Party MP Helen Joanne Cox died after
being shot and stabbed multiple times in Birstall by Thomas Mair,
a mentally ill man with ties to a Neo-Nazi organization He shouted
“Britain first” as he carried out the attack.
3. Greenpoint Gothic (2:02)
An architectural interlude for synthesizer and drums.
4. Element (3:00)
Elegy for Ecology (a landscape done in toxic watercolors)
5. What Happens To People (4:16)
Eulogy for “Emotions”SIDETWO:
6. Détournement (3:26)
A postcard from the slipstream
7. Futurism (2:52)
Nostalgia is toxic.
8. Tarnung (3:08)
A walk through Europe in the rain
9. Plains (2:13)
James Dean spent the Summer of 1955 in Marfa, Texas filming ‘Giant,’
before his death on September 30th.
10. Nocturne (6:25)
Live stream from the afterlife.

steve gunn / the unseen in between cd/lp in stores jan 18

18 January 2019

For over a decade, Steve Gunn has been one of American music’s most pivotal figures — conjuring
immersive and psychedelic sonic landscapes both live and on record. His new album, The Unseen In
Between is available January 18 via Matador Records.
Gunn is known for telling other people’s stories, but on his breakthrough fourth album, ‘The Unseen In
Between’, he explores his own emotional landscapes with his most complex, fully realized songs to date.
The lyrics evoke voyages, tempests (actual and emotional), and a rich cast of characters met along the
way — the work of an artist finding a place of calm in the midst of a storm.
Produced by frequent collaborator James Elkington and engineered by Daniel Schlett, the immaculately
recorded ‘Unseen’ forces a reassessment of Gunn’s standing in the pantheon of the era’s great
songwriters.
The album announcement comes with the release of a new song titled “New Moon,” and its
accompanying lyric video. The song begins in the mode of a deep track from Astral Weeks or Fred Neil,
with its upright bass and sparse tremolo guitar. But during the song’s final minutes, strings double the
melody, and then the guitar rushes headlong, pulling ahead in a wave of ecstatic deliverance. It is a brief
but liberating solo, an instant release of tension from the fraught scene Gunn has built, complemented by
one of his most arresting vocal performances.
A sense of musical renewal and emotional complexity fits the new songs perfectly; “Luciano” seems to
be about the chemistry between a bodega owner and his cat, an unspoken romance of gentle obedience
and quiet gestures.
And then there’s “Vagabond,” Gunn’s graceful attempt to humanize a rich cast of characters whose lives
have gone astray, wanderers who live outside of society’s modern safety net, who pursue “a crooked
dream” in spite of what the world expects. Supported by the perfect harmonies of Meg Baird, Gunn finds
something lovely in the unloved
Following the guitarist/vocalist’s 3-night residency at Brooklyn’s Union Pool Oct. / Nov., Gunn will tour
with a full band throughout the US and Europe in 2019. Canadian dates are expected shortly.

“Majestic American singer-songwriter.” – MOJO

“His guitar playing and songwriting have that eddying quality that imbues stillness with a sense of forward
motion.” – The Wire

“As a self-taught guitarist, composer and, latterly, a singer, his luscious deconstruction of Americana
tinged blues, country and psychedelia switches between the accessible and the experimental.” – Crack

Getting to The Unseen In Between itself was not easy for Gunn. In the summer of 2016, Gunn released
Eyes On The Lines, his winning and elliptical debut for Matador. It should have been a triumphant
moment, but exactly two weeks later, Gunn’s father and namesake died following a two-year struggle with
cancer. During his sickness, he and his son had connected as never before, listening to one another’s
experiences and understanding one another’s perspectives; they became not father and son but real
friends.
This experience yielded the emotional centrepiece of the album. “Stonehurst Cowboy” is a duet for
Gunn’s raw acoustic guitar and spare basslines by Bob Dylan’s musical director Tony Garnier, whose
featured throughout the album. The song distills the lessons Gunn learned from his father and it is a
solemn but tender remembrance, a tribute to his father’s reputation as a tough, wise, and witty guy from
far west Philadelphia.
Unseen In Between, a gorgeously empathetic record that attempts to recognize the worries of the world
and offer some timely assurance. It is a revelatory and redemptive set, offering the balm of
understanding at a time when that seems in very short supply.

bauhaus - Crackle 2 LP Ruby Vinyl in stores Dec. 7

7 December 2018

Late 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of Bauhaus. To celebrate, Beggars Arkive is reissuing records
from the band’s catalog on limited edition coloured vinyl.
Originally released by Beggars Banquet in 1998 during the band’s Resurrection tour, Crackle is a selection of Bauhaus’ finest from their catalog. It’s an excellent overview of the group’s brief career, containing all of their essential songs, from “In the Flat Field” and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” to “Ziggy Stardust” and “Burning from the Inside”.
Includes the ‘Tomb Raider Mix’ of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” and single re-mix of Kick In The Eye and much more.
This limited edition UK import 2LP is pressed on Ruby vinyl

“A fine retrospective of the material that both Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson claim was a “major influence” of their music.” – Pitchfork

Isn’t death romantic? For fans of Goth rock, it is. ‘‘The passion of lovers is for death,’‘ Peter Murphy sang on Thursday night when the reunited Bauhaus, the pioneering Goth band, played the first of its two sold-out shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Bauhaus lasted from 1978 to 1983, but in that time it forged Goth’s enduring traits, from hollow-eyed, portentous vocals to lyrics about maidens, decadence and madness. In Bauhaus’s songs, Mr. Murphy can be a guide to the lower depths or a kind of coach; the band started its set with ‘‘Double Dare,’‘ urging listeners to try ‘‘the pangs of dark delight.’‘

Playing a set drawn largely from ‘‘Crackle’‘ (Beggars Banquet), Bauhaus thickened its music while preserving its inexorable drive. There was more reverberation in bass and drums; the guitar buzzed more fiercely and reached higher for siren notes, while Mr. Murphy’s baritone dived deeper. Up-tempo songs like ‘‘Terror Couple Kill Colonel’‘ and ‘‘In the Flat Field’‘ showed what Bauhaus had done with late-1970’s new-wave rock; dirges like ‘‘Hollow Hills,’‘ sung by Mr. Murphy as yellow light bulbs winked into view like fireflies, hinted at Celtic and ambient undercurrents. The reunited Bauhaus also brought out reggae connections in ‘‘She’s in Parties,’‘ as Mr. Murphy played a melodica and the guitar and drums took on dub-style echoes.

But the band didn’t have to change its songs significantly for a 1990’s audience. Its strengths, from its unswerving rhythm section to its succinct melodies to Mr. Murphy’s glowering voice, were intact while Bauhaus tacitly claimed its place as a forerunner of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. When Mr. Murphy sang the chorus of Bauhaus’s first single, ‘‘Bela Lugosi’s dead/Undead, undead, undead,’‘ he could have been singing about his band. New York Times, 1998

Selections:

A1. Double Dare
A2. In the Flat Field
A3. The Sanity Assassin
A4. The Passion of Lovers

bauhaus - Burning From the inside - Blue Vinyl LP In stores Dec. 7

7 December 2018

Burning From The Inside was Bauhaus’ fourth album and was the last of their studio albums of this era, released just after the band’s breakup in 1983. This was mastered from HD audio files transferred from the original tapes.
Limited edition UK import LPs are pressed on Blue vinyl.
Before the album had even been released, the group had made the decision to break-up following two last London shows a few weeks beforehand, leaving Burning behind as one last full-length sprawl of sound as an unintentional shroud.

“Some may be thrown by the instant change in tempo on the very punk-inspired ‘Honeymoon Croon;’ and equally as intense ‘Antonin Artaud’, as the other songs generally stick to the same speed, but this is more than made up for with deep lyrical content, once again used to fit the many emotions encompassed into each singular song. ‘Burning from the Inside’, for all its significance in Bauhaus’ career, may still put some listeners off, for the same reason that the band’s first three albums would put listeners off. The change in musical styles unfortunately makes the album as a whole seem slightly disjointed, but this is to be expected when listening to a band as diverse as Bauhaus.” – Sputnik Music

If The Sky’s Gone Out felt like a collection of various recordings, Burning from the Inside really was, due in large part to outside events — Murphy had fallen victim to a life-threatening illness, so the rest of the band began recording without him, which more than anything else foreshadowed both Bauhaus’ breakup and the trio’s future work as Love and Rockets. As a result, two songs ended up on the album, the piano-led cinematic moodiness of “Who Killed Mr. Moonlight” and the sweet acoustic drive of “Slice of Life,” with David J and Ash on lead vocals respectively. Furthermore, more songs from the earliest days of the band were dug up to provide material, the most notable and successful being the dub-inflected, heavily dramatic “She’s in Parties,” using filmmaking as a metaphor for romance and life, with Murphy’s excellent lead balanced against a near-whispering chorus from the other two singers. The end result of all this was an album that was good in spots but not as strong throughout as it could be, while betraying the other performing and writing strains that would soon cause the band to call it a day. As before, though, when the band members were on, they were on with a vengeance, such as the medieval folk dance “King Volcano” and the starkly beautiful “Kingdom’s Coming.” The ten-minute title track takes a good idea and stretches it out a little too long, but the concluding track “Hope” follows it with a life-affirming, inspirational vibe that serves as much as a farewell for Bauhaus’ audience as anything else. While imperfect, Burning from the Inside has much more to recommend it than many other albums.

STARCRAWLER - HOLLYWOOD ENDING Orange Vinyl 7" IN STORES NOV 30

30 November 2018

After a long and incredible year, releasing their debut LP and touring the world, Starcrawler are
returning home with a brand-new single, “Hollywood Ending”, which includes the b-side “Tank Top”.
About it, vocalist Arrow de Wilde says “Hollywood Ending is my version of a prayer. In the song I pray
for ‘The End’. The end of being lied to, toyed with, the end of false friendships and relationships. I’m
begging for a clean start. Let me walk into the light.”
Hollywood Ending’ was mixed by Nick Launay (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, Nick Cave, Kate Bush,
David Byrne) and produced by Ryan Adams and ‘Tank Top’ was produced by Nick Launay.
In truth, she’s been walking in light all year, as the band have had an amazing ascent and the future is
looking very bright.
Starcrawler’s self-titled LP was released in January by Rough Trade Records to rave reviews. They’ve
been on the road pretty much non-stop playing all over the world, including triumphant sets at Primavera,
Rock Am Ring, Download Festival, Voodoo Festival, Fuji Rock, Reading, Leeds and more.
In March, they won the 2018 SXSW Grulke prize for best US act after blowing minds at each of their
nine shows.
In June they were the must see act at CMW in Toronto, playing 3 packed shows to rave reviews. They
played Vancouver twice in Sept., opening for both The Distillers and Wayne Kramer’s MC50, where
Arrow sang “High School” on stage with them.
They were VEVODSCVR artists with video testimonial from Shirley Manson who said “I feel like
Starcrawler, and in particular Arrow, are really challenging the norms in which women are seen in music.”
The amount of support they have received from their fellow artists has been overwhelming. They have
had praise heaped on them from Elton John, opened shows for the Foo Fighters at Olympic Park in
London, toured with The Distillers and MC50 and very recently, opened for Morrissey in San Diego.

“Gratifying riff-based rock, and in an industry littered with sycophants, Starcrawler’s brand of exuberant
noise is refreshing” – EXCLAIM

“The album is like being slapped by rock’n’roll again. You’ll be like, ‘What the fuck was that?” – i-D
“Arrow de Wilde is what would have happened if Ozzy Osbourne and Patti Smith had got together in
1975 and had a kid.” – Classic Rock

“Teenage LA glam-punks LA debut.” – Q

“Super refreshing to see this mix of 70’s theatricality and Stooges electricity.” – Gerard Way
“Starcrawler is “the future of the RocknRoll legacy of bands like KISS, X, Sonic Youth & the Stooges.RAW X 1000. Total rockstars. No bullshit, just raw fuckin’ power.” – Ryan Adams
“Arrow is a star.” – Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music)

BAUHAUS - THE SKY'S GONE OUT vIOLET LP IN STORES NOV 23

23 November 2018

The Sky’s Gone Out is the band’s third album, released Oct.19 1982, has been mastered from HD
audio files transferred from the original tape and is available on UK import violet vinyl.
The album contained the single Spirit, a cover of Brian Eno’s Third Uncle, the iconic Bauhaus tracks
Silent Hedges, and All We Ever Wanted Was Everything; and the two funk inspired tracks Swing the
Heartache, and In the Night, the former of which was used as the title for the band’s BBC Sessions
compilation.

“Changing from eerie sounds and unashamedly distinctive musical styles, ‘The Sky’s gone out’ sees
Bauhaus reach their career peak, even if they would break up one year later.” – Sputnik Music
“One of the top 10 essential goth albums.” – Alternative Press

“Daniel Ash’s elegant, haunting acoustic guitar work received two great showcases — “Silent Hedges,”
adding a more familiar electric explosion to a fine Peter Murphy performance detailing a desperate
mental collapse, and “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” a sympathetic, nostalgic reflection on
dreams of the past, again matched by a perfectly balanced Murphy vocal.” – AllMusic

Born of punk, glam, and what must have been some seriously twisted Catholic upbringings, Bauhaus
entered the world fully formed with its 1979 debut single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” a torturously distended
track of lurking mood and menace. The band followed that up with two near-perfect full-lengths, 1980’s In The Flat Field and 1981’s Mask, which congealed its reputation as gothic rock’s guiding black light.
Their third release, The Sky’s Gone Out, kicks off with a slashing rendition of Brian Eno’s “Third Uncle,”
showing that Bauhaus had deeper roots in the glam pantheon than the group’s previous covers—T. Rex’s “Telegram Sam” and David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”—let on. From that relatively neutral starting point, the disc becomes unmistakably Bauhausian. “Silent Hedges” picks up where Mask’s “The Passion Of Lovers” left off, only bending acoustic textures toward an even grimmer end, while “In The Night”
ploddingly ponders a junkie’s downfall—that is, until the song’s latter half, when guitarist Daniel Ash,
apparently fresh from listening to Judas Priest’s Hell Bent For Leather, rips into a suicidal riff of which any denim-clad metalhead would have been proud. Ash’s emerging guitar godhood comes into focus again on “Spirit,” a darkly psychedelic exploration of fame, stage, and self-mythology with lyrics that Neil
Gaiman might have written on an absinthe bender.
In one of the most subliminal uses of keyboards in the new-wave era, “Swing The Heartache” stabilizes
The Sky’s Gone Out wildly fluctuating pulse with a throbbing ode to sex, hallucination, and ambition. “Out of her mouth it came as no surprise / lipstick stained on whip cream lies,” Murphy croons ghoulishly as guitars hover and synths leave chrome streaks across the screen. Ash then closes the song with gales of strangled distortion that howl over eerie xylophone plinks. Flamboyantly minimal, “Swing The Heartache” is a study in Bauhaus’ paradoxical embrace and butchery of rock orthodoxy—a sound that embodied goth and post-punk while wholly eclipsing both. – AV Club

Selections:
Third Uncle (Brian Eno cover)
Silent Hedges
In the Night
Swing the Heartache
Spirit
The Three Shadows, Part I
The Three Shadows, Part II
The Three Shadows, Part III
All We Ever Wanted Was
Everything
Exquisite Corpse

THE BREEDERS - SAFARI 12" VINYL EP IN SORES NOV. 23

23 November 2018

Being released this November as part of Record Store Day’s sister Black Friday event is a faithful
repress of the 12” version of The Breeders’ Safari EP, complete with Shinro Ohtake’s 1983 charcoal
drawing Nairobi VIII adorning its cover.
Originally released in April 1992, sandwiched between their first two albums (Pod and Last Splash), The
Breeders’ Safari EP came at a time when Kim’s Pixies commitments were winding down and her new
band were on the cusp of releasing a platinum-selling album.
Their first record to feature Kim Deal’s twin Kelley, the EP was recorded in two studios with the bulk
coming from a session in New York, which provided an early version of ‘Do You Love Me Now?’, ‘Don’t
Call Home’ and a cover of The Who’s ‘So Sad About Us’. The title track, ‘Safari’, was recorded separately
in London by Kim, Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jon Mattock (Spacemen 3 / Spiritualized).

“More consistently thrilling than almost any other band in indie-rock.” – Uncut

“There are only four songs on Safari, but the Breeders continue to improve, growing more muscular and
melodic. All of the songs here, especially “Do You Love Me Now?” and a cover of the Who’s “So Sad
About Us,” rival the best on Pod.” – AllMusic

Selections:

A1. Do You Love Me Now
A2. Don’t Call Home
B1. Safari
B2. So Sad About Us

For the very first North American pressing, Beggars Arkive presents Bauhaus’ Press The Eject And Give
Me The Tape on white vinyl and mastered from HD audio files transferred from the original tapes.
Released in 1982, this is a live album, compiled from shows across the UK from 1981–82. Press the
Eject features a striking version of John Cale’s “Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores”, a particularly spooky runthrough
of “Hollow Hills” that out-creeps the studio version on Mask, and the punk rock fuzz-out of “Dark
Entries”. Of course, “Bela…” appears here as well, in a luxurious nine-and-a-half-minute version. Washed
in feedback and ever-sosubtly accelerating and decelerating, this song is the true center of “Goth”
mythology.

Just two albums into their career, Bauhaus’ repertoire consisted of plenty of standards and fan favorites.
Despite the punk world’s disdain for live albums (because of their association with arena rock), the group
issued an 11-track collection recorded in London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Paris. Though Peter
Murphy’s stage theatrics and the dark atmosphere of a Bauhaus live date are obviously lost on the
translation to record, the band are electrifying on standards such as “In the Flat Field,” “Bela Lugosi Is
Dead,” “Kick in the Eye,” “Stigmata Martyr,” and “Dark Entries.” The more obscure songs, including “Rose
Garden Funeral of Sores” and “The Man with X-Ray Eyes,” also come off well. Though these tracks
aren’t quite subsitutes for their studio versions, fans of the band will love to hear them playing in their
prime.

1. In the Flat Field – February 1982 at The Old Vic, London
2. Rose Garden Funeral of Sores (John Cale) – February 1982 at The Old Vic, London
3. Dancing – October 1981 at The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
4. The Man With X-Ray Eyes – November 1981 at Hammersmith Palais, London
5. Bela Lugosi’s Dead – February 1982 at The Old Vic, London
6. The Spy in the Cab – October 1981 at The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
7. Kick in the Eye – October 1981 at The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
8. In Fear of Fear – October 1981 at The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
9. Hollow Hills – February 1982 at The Old Vic, London
10. Stigmata Martyr – October 1981 at The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
11. Dark Entries – October 1981 at The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
12. Terror Couple Kill Colonel – December 1981 at Le Rose Bon Bon, Paris
13. Double Dare – December 1981 at Le Rose Bon Bon, Paris
14. In the Flat Field – December 1981 at Le Rose Bon Bon, Paris
15. Hair of the Dog – December 1981 at Le Rose Bon Bon, Paris
16. Of Lillies and Remains – December 1981 at Le Rose Bon Bon, Paris
17. Waiting for the Man (Lou Reed; Featuring Nico on Vocals)

POWELL TILLMANS - SPOKEN BY THE OTHER LTD ED 12” EP in stores Nov 16

16 November 2018

On the 16 of November, XL Recordings releases Spoken By The Other, the first EP by Powell Tillmans.
It’s a collection of recordings from two of the most interesting artists in Europe, and one whose short
length belies its radical tenderness, sonic language and political ambition.
The first part of the partnership is Oscar Powell, the London-based electronic musician. The second is
Wolfgang Tillmans, the Turner Prize-winning fine artist and musician who lives between Berlin and
London.
After 25 years away from music-making, Tillmans began releasing his own vocal-led electronic tracks in
2016, with a series of EPs and collaborative visual mini-albums, with one track closing Frank Ocean’s
Endless album. Powell, meanwhile, has been releasing music since 2011, on his own label Diagonal and
XL, drawing from the history of machine music to create a bold new language. They met at the Tate
Modern, where Tillmans was programming a series of performances to coincide with his 2017 exhibition.
Quickly the conversation turned to talk of a full collaboration, and following Tillmans’ video for Powell’s
track Freezer, over the summer they got into the studio to begin making music.
Across the record’s six tracks, Tillmans’ vocals drive and weave through the music. The lyrics serve as
both poetically abstract snapshots like “All surfaces and all reflections,” on Doucement, and direct
invocations to the listener, like “Lose your pride!” on Feel the Night.
Across the EP, Powell’s sounds are at once sharply focused and beautifully free. Each track represents
another venture into the possibilities of computer music: composed with modular synthesizers and digital
signal processing applications, these are etudes that glitter, shift and shimmer as they find themselves.
Feel the Night uses a flickering pair of notes and Tillmans’s treated voice to slowly build an anthem. Tone
Me –which Tillmans says is a semi-affectionate send-up of gym culture –plays with how low a bassline
can go, a melody sketched above. Doucement (“slowly” in French) is an electro acoustic tone-poem.
Rebuilding the Future swings, even as it journeys into static. On 445, a dinner party turns into a dazzling
piece of music concrete. This is the sound of two artists pushing each other towards, well, freedom.
Freedom to move. Freedom to play. Freedom to change. Freedom to be soft.
For Powell, ‘Feel the Night’ marks a departure from both his post-punk sampling early work and his
recent jungle and hardcore-referencing Beta EPs, as throbbing drone provides a suitably epic backdrop
for Tillmans’ resonant vocal performance. “Wolfgang’s voice and my sounds drive toward some sort of
shape or feeling together”, says Powell in a press release. “It made me feel very out of my comfort zone,
but I think working with Wolfgang has pushed me to trust myself more. To feel more.”

STEREOLAB - THE GROOP PLAYED CLEAR VINYL lp IN STORES NOV 9

9 November 2018

Released in 1993, Space Age Bachelor Pad Music refined Stereolab’s sound further and also showcased the increasingly experimental focus of the band’s music. Split into two sides — the gentle, intricate “Easy Listening” and the more upbeat “New Wave” — this eight-song EP ranges from the bubbly keyboard piece “Space Age Bachelor Pad Music (Foamy)” to the defiant, driving groove of “We’re Not Adult Orientated.” The sweet, close harmonies on “Ronco Symphony” and “The Groop Play Chord X” edge closer to the sophisticated, lounge pop-inspired sound explored during the rest of Stereolab’s career, while the vibes of “Avant Garde M.O.R.” and the fizzy keyboards of “Space Age Bachelor Pad Music (Mellow)” spotlight
the band’s more texturally complex arrangements. However, the immediacy of “We’re Not Adult Orientated (Neu Wave Live)” and the hypnotic, fuzzy guitars on “U.H.F. – MFP” prove that while Stereolab gained more polish and ambition on Space Age Bachelor Pad Music, the band didn’t lose any
of its kinetic edge.